The placard attached to the podium read “Protecting the most vulnerable,’’ but on this particular Wednesday Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry took aim at a very specific apex predator: Big-time football.

The governor, who was supposed to be talking about food stamps that are nearing a crisis point due to the government shutdown, instead launched a verbal grenade directed squarely at the Louisiana State University Athletics Administration Building – aimed more specifically at the desk of athletic director Scott Woodward.

Calling out not just the lack of success under football head coach Brian Kelly but the $53 million bill LSU now has to foot to give the coach his walking papers, Landry publicly defrocked Woodward, making it clear that the man in charge of LSU athletics would not be making the biggest hire for LSU athletics.

“My role is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract,’’ Landry said after being asked about his role in Kelly’s dismissal after reports indicated discussions about the dismissal went all the way to the governor’s mansion.

“I care about what the taxpayers are on the hook on, and I was not happy about raising ticket prices while we were having a losing season and we were paying a coach $100 million and not getting results.’’

He wasn’t done there. Landry told ABC on Thursday that he plans to have the state’s attorney general review the next head coach’s contract “to understand w